Early sunday evening the New Orleans Pelicans played the HEAT in Miami in what was a continuation of Miami HEAT mascot, Burnies Bday weekend.
The New Orleans Pelicans came to Miami with the worst record in the western conference, the 2nd worst record in the league & on a 6 game losing streak. The Pelicans have a bad record but they have 2 good rookies. Jeremiah Fears & Derik Queen.
Jaime Jaquez jr was held out from his injury that occurred vs the Timberwolves on saturday. Tyler Herro dressed but didn’t play but Pelle Larsson returned to action.
Both teams came out making shots but it was the HEAT raining (3s) 7/7 to start for Powell & Mitchell combined in the early part of the first quarter.
The HEAT were getting any shot they wanted as they were on fire starting 9/12 from 3.
Miami HEAT tweeted , “Niko said let me drop 11 pts in 2 min and 19 seconds...”
It was a high scoring competitive 1Q for both teams.
Couper Moorhead on X, “The Heat had very little trouble scoring, but they also just gave up 20 points in the paint to the Pelicans (shooting 68 percent) in one quarter.”
Norm Powell went off for 15 points & Jovic was ballin with 13 points. At the end of 1, the Heat lead the Pelicans, 43-39.
In the 2Q, Ira Winderman tweets, “And now . . . early Myron Gardner minutes.”
The New Orleans Pelicans surprisingly kept the game closer than it should be. The Heat played well offensively but did defend well in the 1st half.
Couper Moorhead on X said, “Pelicans have the new NBA-high for a first half this season with 17 turnovers.” At Halftime the Heat lead 70 to 62.
Powell had 18, Jovic was very complimentary with 15/5/2 & Trey Murphy III had 21 for the Pelicans.
In the 3Q, both teams tried to push offensive pace. Miami HEAT on X said “8 triples for Norm right now...he's TOO tough.”
The HEAT finally took control of the game by making a 21-2 run to go up by 20 points.
In a miserable 3Q for New Orleans, Trey Murphy became the Pelicans all time leader in made 3s.
The HEAT went up 20 in third, & took a 93-77 lead into fourth on Pelicans. Powell was lights out with 29 points thru 3 quarters.
Halfway thru the 4Q Shandel Richardson tweeted, “No points for Zion Williamson in the second half lol.”
Look who’s in the building ⬇️
NOMAN POWELL CAREER HIGH 9 TRIPLES!
5 Reasons Sports tweeted, “Spoelstra wasn't going to play Powell today, because he was banged up, but Powell looked at him and said, "You can trust me."
#HEATWin Final: HEAT 125, Pelicans 106
🔥 Powell: 34pts
🔥 Jović: 19pts, 6rebs
🔥 Ware: 16pts, 12rebs
🔥 Larsson: 16pts, 6asts
🔥 Adebayo: 12pts, 6rebs
🔥 Wiggins: 10pts, 3blks
Life is good when you're forcing turnovers, and more often than not recently the Heat have been forcing turnovers, including 25 from the Pelicans, and making offense look easy.
Plus, Erik Spoelstra tells us something in playing Myron Gardner.
Coup’s Takeaways:
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